- cross-posted to:
- usnews@beehaw.org
- technews@radiation.party
- cross-posted to:
- usnews@beehaw.org
- technews@radiation.party
There is a discussion on Hacker News, but feel free to comment here as well.
Sigh, another bullshit article by people who have just enough knowledge to see a problem, but not enough to fix it.
The largest issue with the farm bill is it supports the wrong farming practices. It’s welfare for millions of dumbfucks who have no business farming and should go out of business.
First off: Dryland farming and pasturing of animals (non-irrigated) is the single largest use of land that we do. It is 100% unnecessary and a waste of space. Banning dryland farming/grazing and investing in mega-irrigation projects would decrease our land usage by more than 60%. Yes I know that irrigations system cause environmental damage, but nothing on the scale that we do now.
The second issue is that funding has gone Into utilizing the excess grain for stupid purposes. Like ethanol production. 45% of corn is used for ethanol to blend with gasoline. A much better crop would be sugar cane in the Southern States and Hawaii. The production of ethanol/acre is similar but it takes less than 1/20th the fertilizer requirements. Funding the right crops for he right reasons in the right areas, instead of supporting the status quo would greatly reduce the damage we do.
FYI the price we pay for food in restaurants/grocery store has very little to do with how much the farmer gets paid. There are a ton businesses from the farm to fork that capture most of the profit.